Benu

Review Highlights

Benu is a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco's SoMa district, opened in 2010 by Korean-born Chef Corey Lee — a nine-year veteran of Thomas Keller's French Laundry. The name is Egyptian for 'phoenix,' and the menu reflects its chef's layered identity: Korean heritage expressed through French technique, with Japanese and Chinese influences woven throughout. Alexander visited as part of a five-restaurant tour of California's top three-star restaurants, feeling unwell beforehand and walking in with unusually low expectations.

• ·Century egg in ginger custard with cabbage juice — a quail egg soaked in alkaline solution, a classic Chinese preparation; "salty and a bit spicy, and quickly warms up my tastebuds"
• ·River eel jerky wrapped around poached eel and radish — presented on eel sauce with pepper leaf powder; "the soft eel goes nicely with the crunch of the radish"
• ·Frog legs under Korean red peppers — breaded, deep-fried, seasoned with garlic and basil, hidden beneath a bowl of peppers as a reveal; "one of the best ways to try a French delicacy — damn good"
• ·From the Oak — acorn, black truffle and Iberico ham in a Korean-style pancake; one of several dishes blending Korean and French traditions
• ·Benu dumpling filled with supreme soup — a rich consommé of whole chicken, dried scallops, Spanish and American ham inside a delicate dumpling skin; "lovely temperature and complex flavors"
• ·Halibut with fermented chili served Korean barbecue-style — fish with lettuce, seaweed paper, and rice from southern Korea for assembling handrolls at the table; "the fish is perfect and has a nice herbal heat to it"
• ·Beef jorim — short-braised and simmered beef in a reduced sauce, served with kimchi; "the meat is incredibly tender and nicely marbled — but the spotlight goes to the vegetables and the kimchi, which is absolutely legendary"

Alexander's verdict: a phoenix that lived up to its name. He arrived feeling ill and sceptical of the sparse interior — and left genuinely moved. "I'm glad I didn't like the interior because it made the contrast with the people even more beautiful. They work with freedom, passion, and joy." The food — a seamless blend of Korean, French, Chinese, and Japanese — was consistently precise and inventive. The kimchi fermentation in particular stood out as among the best he encountered on the entire California trip.

About

Benu is a three-Michelin-star restaurant in San Francisco's SoMa district, opened in 2010 by Chef Corey Lee — a Korean-born, French Laundry-trained chef who spent nine years under Thomas Keller. The menu fuses Korean culinary heritage with classical French technique, drawing on Japanese and Chinese influences. Benu earned two Michelin stars in its opening year and a third in 2014, and remains one of the defining fine dining destinations on the West Coast.